4.5 stars. I liked this a LOT! I had seen the movie first (years ago, liked it a lot, now I want to see it again) so I did have a basic memory of the storyline. Whatley's narrative is very funny, even under such dire circumstances. While so much of this is supposed to be be his actual mission log, one has to wonder if he would go into SO much detail of the day to day.

These past couple years, my high schooler switched to online learning (pre-pandemic, anxiety issues). While I didn't NEED to be involved, I was (again ... anxiety issues). For several of his classes, I'd basically "audit" them, going over all the material, watching the presentations, taking notes, even doing the assignments myself, before sitting down with him as a personal tutor. A couple of the classes were Chemistry and Physics - which I guess I took myself back in my high school days, but ... it's been a while ;) I have to say, I think I geeked out just a bit - of course so much of this was still completely over my head, my recent high school studies not-withstanding, but it wasn't total gobbledygook. Talking about oxygen/hydrogen, about circuits, about thrust and velocity. Just the slightest recognition from the recent school studies, and that was rather fun for me.

Even KNOWING there was going to be a successful rescue (which I think I would have predicted, even if I hadn't seen the movie ... it does make for a better story) there were emotional and stressful moments throughout.

I went with the audio edition - the current one on Audible (included in Plus) with Weaton narrating. His voice was so familiar and associated withe the two "Ready Player One" books, it took me a bit to acclimate and shift to this completely different story. I feel sad that I missed out on the R.C. Bray narration, as I've heard wonderful things about it.

As I do with many books, I downloaded the sample of the Kindle copy so I could peek at the print presentation. Then I noticed it was available from my library, so I borrowed it and skimmed some. I think I would have liked the "diary" format there. In audio, "Sol" sounds like "soul" and sometimes I'd forget we were talking about Martian days. My DIL's name is also Sol, just to confuse that a little more in my mind. I wouldn't mind having a Kindle copy in my cloud - I think it's one I might peek at, maybe try to get my boys to read. If it ever goes on sale, I'll probably grab it (I'm cheap ... it's $9, a little much for something I may or may not read again).

The shift from Watley back to Earth was a little abrupt (Chapter 6) ... I think I would have liked a chapter heading "Earth" or something, just to break it up a little more (would have been appreciated both in audio and in print). Not that we can't figure it out, I just things to be super clear ;)